About the Event

About the Event

Nature provides a wealth of ecological services: forests store carbon and clean the air; rivers provide water for drinking and harbor animal species; and wetlands purify stormwater and serve as buffers against floods. Governments around the world are increasingly recognizing that this “green” infrastructure can be a cost-effective supplement or substitute for the “gray” infrastructure—pipes, dams, levees, treatment plants—traditionally used to control flooding, purify and store water, and reduce urban stormwater runoff.

At this First Wednesday Seminar, sponsored by RFF's Center for the Management of Ecological Wealth, panelists explored what “green infrastructure” means and described how to evaluate the costs and benefits of land-use options for reducing flood damages. They also discussed the challenges of convincing stakeholders that natural systems can provide infrastructure services and complement public projects. RFF experts described a case study evaluating flood abatement options in a Wisconsin watershed, and provided some lessons learned from working to implement a payment for environmental services program in the Florida Everglades.

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In this evaluation of the climate resilience benefits of a natural infrastructure investment in the Meramec Greenway in Missouri, results suggest that the benefits in terms of avoided flood damages are significant.

In the twentieth century, flooding caused more deaths and property damage in the United States than any other natural disaster. Most climate models predict that flooding will worsen in the future, a prospect that is leading a growing number of communities to explore the use of natural areas as protection against extreme events.